Those interested in the subject of leadership were given a gift in 2019. When Fox Sports signed former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer to be part of its Saturday morning college football pregame show, viewers were introduced to a level of leadership knowledge, culture-building, and football knowledge we have rarely been exposed to.
If you have not purchased his book Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Program, do so TODAY by clicking HERE or on the image provided. It is a must-read.
Coach Meyer also appeared on the November 6th Move The Sticks podcast as part of their Building A Championship Culture series. His insights were so impactful I felt I needed to share them with you.
The following are 24 Lessons From Urban Meyer On Building A Winning Culture I captured from the interview. All quotes are his.
- Building A Winning Culture Is Hard Work – “It’s a lot of work.”
- Building A Winning Culture Is Defined By What You Do – “Culture to me is what does your organization, what does your team, look like (in a rivalry game), what does it feel like (what it’s 4th and 2), and what does it act like.”
- “Culture’s got to be the vision of the CEO or head coach. You can’t waver on your culture.”
- A Winning Culture Survives Adversity – “We’ve (Ohio State) built a culture that survives adversity, that survives early entry into the NFL Draft, a coaching change… Their (New England Patriots) culture, developed by Bill Belichick, survives transition of players, survives injuries.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Respect For The Past – “A leader when he takes over a situation has to show respect for the previous regime because you have to… The minute you take a job they become your players.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Belief In Your Team – “My first speech every time (when taking over a new job) is, ‘You did not pick me but I picked you because I believe in you. You’re my guys now.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires You Believe It, Sell It, And Demand It – “The culture has to be yours. First, respect what was there before. You need to believe it. You need to sell it and you need to demand it.”
- A Winning Culture Is Time-Tested And Built On Objective Truth – “To believe it it has to be an objective truth… The culture at Ohio State is time-tested. It’s built on objective truths. It’s built on history. It’s built on experience.”
- Building A Winning Culture Has High Accountability – “You have to demand it. If you’re not living under our culture you have to leave.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Relentless Effort From Your Team – “We have three parts of the culture. First is Relentless Effort. The soundbite is 4 to 6, A to B. That is the length of a play and everybody has a point A and point B. Go as hard as you can. If you make a mistake, that’s not a problem.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Competitive Excellence From Your Team – “Number two is Competitive Excellence. I want you to embrace we’re going to work harder than anyone else in America. I don’t want you to complain about it. I don’t want you to worry about it. I’ll tell them in recruiting you’re going to be rewarded in the NFL most likely and we’re going to win. Just do what we ask you to do. It’s going to be the most miserable, hard stuff you’ve ever done. Just embrace it.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Love For And From Your Team –“Finally is Power of the Unit. Motivation is short-lived. Inspiration is long-lived and sustains. The greatest form of inspiration is love. The greatest form of motivation is the brotherhood… The best units and teams are those that love each other and care about each other. That’s the culture of Ohio State.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Great Leadership –“Every quarterback we had was the most competitive guy on the team. Number two, he was the toughest guy on the team and you have to be nowadays. You’re the face of the program. Number three, are you intelligent. This is a complex game. Are you a leader? Can you raise the level of play of the people around you?.. The quarterback is the most unique position in all of sports. You have to be a leader.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Continually Learning –“I’m learning right now… The minute you quit learning that’s when you fail miserably.”
- A Winning Culture Demands Excellence – “You have to walk into every meeting as if you’re coaching Tom Brady because if you go in there ill-prepared and babble, he will shoot you down. He’ll make you feel like you wasted people’s time.”
- Building A Winning Culture Focusing On Changing Lives – “Your time in front of your team, you can’t devalue that. Every meeting I went into I said, ‘We’re going to change someone’s life today. This meeting will be the difference we’ll beat our rival.'”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Your Best Players Playing Their Best In Big Games And Critical Moments – “Nick Bosa played his best at St. Thomas Aquintas in the biggest games.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Great Preparation – “If I have a team that’s competitive I have to prepare them. If I have a team that’s non-competitive I have to motivate them. Everyone just wants to prepare their team.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Alignment And Attunement From Your Inner-Circle – “They’ve (assistant coaches) got to be aligned with you.”
- A Winning Culture Has Earned Respect – “Respect is not given. Respect is earned.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires Toughness – “The objective is the win conference championships and the next is the national title and it will never be done unless toughness is part of that team… Toughness is fight through injury, fight through adversity. Toughness does not mean a bully… Toughness us running down on a kick-off at 22 mph and hit something going the other way at 20 mph.”
- Building A Winning Culture Requires You Do The Unthinkables – “Coaching is getting people to do the unthinkables, the hard… Can you teach the toughness and demand the toughness? That’s a great coach and that’s got to be part of your culture.”
- Building A Winning Culture Is About The Team – “Football’s about love and it’s about toughness and it’s about team.”
- Building A Winning Culture Is About Finding Greatness – “I miss finding greatness. I believe in people. Everybody that’s sitting in that room, there’s greatness in them and it’s the coach’s job to find it. I don’t believe in elimination.”
What is one thing you learned from Coach Meyer which help you as a leader craft a winning culture?
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